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Guthrie MacInnes
A Scottish philosopher, wunderkind and novelist. He is among the most popular and plausible candidates for the identity of V. M. Straka. Biography Born in Edinburgh in 1888, MacInnes was a prodigy in the world of philosophy. He attended Oxford and became one of its youngest dons earning his doctorate at age 15 with his groundbreaking doctoral thesis, Multitudinalism and Identity. His works building upon these ideas earned to him professorships in Heidelberg and at the fledgling Stennett University in California over the next decade. 1920s was a fallow period. On 1921, 30 October he had a dinner with Torsten Ekstrom and Durand in Alexandria. MacInnes then returned to Europe and claimed that he fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War (today his claims are considered exaggerations), settled into cozy emeritus positions at Cambridge and the Sorbonne and presided over the well-funded MacInnes Institute for Multitudinal Studies. Eric Husch and Jennifer Heyward believe that by 1937 he left the S group. However he later became the leader and completely turned around what the group stood for. His version of S wanted Straka deead. As F.X. Caldeira told to Eric Husch, in early '46 he went to New York and met Caldeira with a story about how he desperately needed to contanct Straka. Caldeira said she doesn't know, and he attempted to bribe her. Throughout the 1960s he was a nearly ubiquitous presence on British and American television programs. John Lennon disgustedly stormed off the set of “Evening Brandy with Gibby Wickers” rather than sitting alongside him. According to the documents of Jean-Bernard Desjardins, he left the S group in 1964. In 1969 he was in Kenya where he died of a heart attack while on safari. Character and lifestyle A gregarious and charismatic, pompous and vain man, MacInnes became well-known for his attendance at exclusive parties and at gatherings of the world’s intellectual, artistic, and economic elites; his rumored romantic pursuits were reported in newspapers worldwide. His fortune and cushy teaching positions left him ample time to write. He became a celebrity philosopher, vain bon vivant and self-styled Casanova. He had many appearances on TV and he liked to talk about his digestive health. He was persnicket about the preparation of his tea causing embarassment in the cafes. He attempted to approach Amarante Durand and one time F.X. Caldeira with a bottle of 1866 Chateau Hirondelle des Granges. Whenever MacInnes was asked if he was Straka, he laughed off the possibility, with subtle pieces of non-denial. Books His writings and public statements, exhibit a rebellious streak and stylistic similarities to Straka's, betraying some influence. MacInnes's prose is rich in descriptions of settings, witticisms, and philosophical asides that many readers find enlightening. His least-productive period was when Straka was most productive, so it is possible that he assumed the Straka identity to write more disturbing and radical works. His doctoral thesis was a groundbreaking hybrid of philosophical and literary study, Multitudinalism and Identity, that became wildly popular throughout Europe and North America. He developed the concept of Multitudinism, that there is nothing durable in identity, and a single vision is by definition impossible. It is a form of nihilism as it means that there is no reason to value anything. Contradictingly, MacInnes also talked a lot about art requiring one single vision. Over the next decade he wrote several more works building upon these ideas earning MacInnes his professorships. His early works were about identity in the context of economics. In 1919, he shocked his academic peers by publishing his first novel, The Unseen Battalion, that became a huge success. Eric supposes that he wrote part of Straka's A Triptych of Mirrors, and he was responsible for its philosophical elements, making the book a disaster. From 1930 his prose becomes much more ornate/showy. Notable works include a bodice-ripper The Sands of Kom Ombo (1940) which which describes an affair with a volatile female archeologist (interpreted as an affair with the late Amarante Durand), Still Life with Delirium (1944), Roe (1950) and A Swindle of Cowbirds (1966) an international but controversial best-seller which featured thinly-veiled caricatures of his peers. Quotes *"The creation of art requires a descent into the dark" *"Today, whilst my critics are buying sarnies from an automat, I shall purchase another island in the South Pacific" (on the criticism against Cowbirds) category:British category:Straka candidates category:authors category:S group